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The Hobbit – Exposed

by revealingtruthtoday on February 1, 2013

The Hobbit, a series of books made into movies, is the topic of this blog entry. Originally published as a children’s book in 1937, The Hobbit was written by J.R.R. Tolkien. It seems that there is a trend of book trilogies and/or series being made into movies, lately. Another common denominator is that all of the trilogies/series seem to be marketed to children and teens. All have the same type of dark theme including some type of witchcraft or magic. And all of these books/movies seem to be addictive to those who read or watch. The Hobbit is no exception to this dark trend. The first movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was released in 2012. In worldwide ticket sales, the movie brought in $940,351,480.00. The numbers speak to the fact that many people flocked to this film and that it has gained worldwide popularity. But like the old saying goes, “Just because something is popular does not mean it is good.” Not to mention, there are still two more movies in the trilogy. The second movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is set to release in 2013. If no more sequels are made, the final movie in the trilogy is set to release in 2014. This final movie is The Hobbit: There and Back Again. But, before we delve in too far, let us lay some groundwork.

Hidden Symbolism

A former occult member, Wes Penre, said, “I can speak from my own experience; after I had read his [J.R.R. Tolkien’s] books, I wanted to know more about magic and sorcery; and directly or indirectly, his work eventually led me to one of the occult secret societies, where I became a member. However, I finally realized how I was used there for evil purposes, and left. I am certain of one thing with regards to this: Tolkien was a highly educated man, and his symbolism is not coincidental. He knew about the occult symbols, and he did use them for some hidden purpose.”

The famous author of The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien was also the writer of The Lord of the Rings – another dark, influential, and popular book-turned-movie. On the older, original copies of the book, The Lord of the Rings, there is a very strange symbol on the cover. It depicts an encircled eye with writing around the circle which seems to be written in another language. According to Tolkien’s biography, he created Gothic words to compensate for vocabulary gaps. The writing around the ring is known as “The Black Speech” which is a fictitious type of speech devised by Tolkien for elves. In an interview, Tolkien describes the elves/dwarves this way: “They’re not a part of the children of God.” Thus, it seems the elf language would also be evil. The language is loosely interpreted to mean that the “darkness binds them all”.

The encircled eye on the book cover is very reminiscent of TheAll-Seeing Eye or the Eye of Horus which is a symbol used by a secret society of Satanists called The Illuminati. Perhaps, the symbol was originally meant to be the all-seeing eye of God. However, it is now mocked and used for evil, much like the rainbow. If a person wore rainbow colors or even a depiction of a rainbow on their apparel, it used to be just that – a rainbow, which is symbolic of God’s promise to never flood the entire earth again. However, society has skewed this sacred symbol to be an evil representation for gays and lesbians. We find symbols marketed to give subtle messages and the one-eye symbol is no exception.

If one eye is exalted, it means that the person (or object) is viewed as being powerful and as a god – even worthy of worship! A quick lesson – any time you see one eye and a triangle, BEWARE! The pyramid and The All-Seeing Eye is represented on U.S. currency which many believe to be a subtle symbol placed on our paper money. But, all conspiracy theories aside, it cannot be debated that we see one-eye symbolism everywhere. Notice how celebrities will highlight one eye with make-up or even fashion their fingers in a circle around one eye. (For examples and photos, type in the search bar on my blog for: “How Mainstream is Satanism?”)

This book cover not only has the one-eye symbolism, but it has triangle symbolism. The three rings around the larger ring, if connected, would make a triangle. This cover is very mysterious and is loaded with evil symbols. The triangle is merely a shape. However, it can also be used to symbolize evil. It is said that the upright triangle represents divinity, spirit, or even the Trinity. That seems to be good, right? Nonetheless, we must remember that these symbols have been skewed by an evil society to hold hidden messages. The New Age society has refashioned the triangle to represent elements, spirits, evil, etc. In the 1970’s there were Hippies… in the 21st century, there are now Hipsters. This group is infatuated with triangles because it represents their New Age beliefs. With the lesson on triangles understood – we can see that this triangular symbolism is utilized on this book cover.

Then, we look at the original book cover for The Hobbit. It appears very innocent, but we must look for the subtle symbols. The triangular mountains with a sun in between them is highly symbolic of Egyptian mythology and false god worship. The false God, Aker, represented the horizon and was one of the earliest false gods to be worshiped. In hieroglyphics, his symbol was a sun disc between two lions or two mountains.

I am not a conspiracy theorist or one that would try to materialize something that isn’t there. But, with all of the symbolism, innuendos, and parallels – it is hard to deny that there seems to be some underlying theme of evil. Tolkien created a world of his own called the “Middle Earth” where reincarnation is subtly introduced, evil characters are innocent, and unbiblical rules stand as the truth. Many argue, “Lighten up… it’s just a fictitious fantasy story!” Granted, it is fictitious but why would we fantasize or mentally-escape to a place of evil? We think, “It’s just fiction”, so we let our guard down – that is how many an evil is introduced and easily accepted as good.

J.R.R. Tolkien & C.S. Lewis

Two of the most popular fantasy writers of all time are J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. These two authors formed a friendship and were both part of The Inklings – a group of writers who met regularly to discuss philosophy, literature, and the like. However, it went deeper than that. It is believed that a fellow Inkling, Charles William, introduced The Inklings to, what he called, “white witchcraft.” This was a supposed “innocent” form of witchcraft. “Innocent witchcraft” is the same as an “honest liar” – the two do not mix. “Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring. If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom” (James 3:11-13).

Both writers include magical and savior-like characters in their writings. Thus, many Christians let down their guard, thinking that Lewis and Tolkien are Christian authors who parallel their works to Christianity. Personally, I did the same thing when C.S. Lewis’ first movie was released. I went to see it, thinking that it was a Christian movie. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a movie that I do not wish to watch ever again. If a person is not “on guard” there are many subtle things which can be easily introduced to the subconscious. The half goat, half man character in the movie is fashioned after the false god, Pan. Also, some of the verbiage used in the film makes no sense if Aslan (the lion) is really supposed to be a character to represent Jesus. Furthermore, I left the theater feeling dirty – almost as if the movie made me feel toxic or sinful. The movie seemed to last forever and I couldn’t wait until it was finally over! I thought it would be a good ending and proclaim Jesus – but no, it was just… bleh.

Blogger, Vicky Beeching, also writes about C.S. Lewis’ work in her blog. She states: “…in Lewis’ work The Last Battle, he suggests that all religions may in fact lead to God. At the end of the book, Lewis describes a Calormene soldier named Emeth and his face to face encounter with Aslan the lion. Emeth comes from a culture where the god Tash is worshipped and this is the religion he has followed all of his life. As a result, he is terrified when he realizes Aslan is right in front of him. The text documents Emeth’s experience: ‘I fell at his feet and thought surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him’. However, Emeth experienced quite the opposite from what he had expected; Aslan said ‘Son thou art welcome. But I said, alas Lord I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash’. He answered, ‘Child all the service thou hast done to Tash I account as service done to me.’This already seems a far cry from what most Christians would consider to be orthodox.”

Furthermore, John Todd (an Illuminati Defector) stated the following: “Tolkien was a member, along with another gentleman I’m going to mention in a minute… both were supposed, confessed, born-again Christians. But, both were members of The Golden Dawn… that’s the Rothchild’s private church in London; it’s the oldest coven in the world. You may think that The Hobbit, and the books of the trilogy like Lord of the Rings (inaudible), and Silmarillion, and so on, are fairy tales; but they’re the gospel to witches. According to witches, those things really did take place. If you’ve got them in your home – you wouldn’t own a Satanist’s Bible; at least I hope you wouldn’t, I pray for you if you would – and you wouldn’t own a Witchcraft Bible… why would you own part of the Witchcraft Bible? You could go to the occult stores and you could pick up many books that came out after The Hobbit came out, that bare the alphabet of witchcraft. Now, there’s a ‘Christian’ author… who claims that Tolkien won him to the Lord; [but] he forgot to say what lord. And, his books are required reading before you can join a coven; required studying. His name was C.S. Lewis. I want to quote from one of Lewis’ books: ‘The pathway to God is like a hall with many doors; they all lead to God’ [end quote]. Not on your life! Jesus says that anybody that comes, other than through Him, is a thief and a robber.”

Personally, what confuses me is to read sensible quotes by C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien, yet, to find that their books and writings are so dark. Then, two scriptures came to mind to dispel my confusion. I am not judging either gentleman, but I could not help but to think of a couple of scriptures in regards to this double-standard they seemed to have had. They both seemed to bear bad spiritual fruit. The first scripture is found in 2nd Timothy 3:5. It states: “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!” And the second scripture is found in Matthew 7:20-21 which states: “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”

The Hobbit Producer: Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson, also known as Sir Peter Jackson, is the Producer for The Hobbit. Jackson, a supposed self-proclaimed Atheist, also produced The Lord of the Rings. Even though the books of J.R.R. Tolkien have evil undertones already, many argue that this Atheist/Producer is making the movies even darker than the books. Ironically, both of his parents died during the production of The Lord of the Rings. According to the Internet Movie Database, his trademarks are that he likes darkly humorous scenes with violence, has an interest in matricide (the killing of one’s own mother), and has frequently concluded his other films with a bloodbath. In regards to Jackson’s approach on The Hobbit, one group is even calling him, “Satan’s little helper.” Regardless of your personal viewpoint, we can ascertain by his likes, dislikes, and lifestyle that he honestly needs prayer. But, we are ultimately accountable to God for ourselves. Therefore, we must not partake in the dark types of entertainment in which the world engages so readily in.

The Plot’s Message

Honestly, it is difficult for me to understand the entire plot of The Hobbit since I refuse to read the book or watch the movie. But, I have seen enough “red flags” which have brought me to this decision. It would be easy for a critic to pick apart someone like me who has never seen the movie, yet, am warning others to abstain from it. However, liken it to a thief or even a prostitute – I do not have to engage in the nefarious acts in order to: A.) Warn others to stay away from such evil. B.) See signs/indications which would make me, as a Christian, discern that the activity is wrong.

But, suffice it to say that The Hobbit is a story to reclaim a lost kingdom from a dragon. Along the journey, we find the movie includes magic, a dragon, wizard, trolls, goblins, and sorcerers – all of which represent evil. Oh, and a company of thirteen dwarves. Incidentally, thirteen is the Biblical number representing rebellion.

In regards to magic, scripture says, “Outside are the dogs, those who practice MAGIC arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Revelation 22:15). Furthermore, Ezekiel 13:20 says, “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against your MAGIC charms with which you ensnare people like birds and I will tear them from your arms; I will set free the people that you ensnare like birds.” Additionally, Galatians 5:19-21 states: “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, SORCERY, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God.” Finally, a very interesting scripture found in Acts 19:19 says this: “And a number of those who had practiced MAGIC arts brought their BOOKS together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

In The Hobbit, there are many lengthy battle scenes including dismemberment, decapitation, repeated stabbings, and killings. And this is being called a “fantasy film”?! Normally, people who fantasize about such things would be considered mentally-unstable or even demon-possessed. Yet, some people who attend a Christian church every Sunday find no problem with endorsing this type of entertainment?! Church of Jesus, don’t be so easily deceived! It is a true saying that you cannot be the Bride of Christ and the girlfriend of the world at the same time! In this generation, we need some people with some boldness and backbone.

What Do You Want On Your Tombstone?

Even though J.R.R. Tolkien died in the 1970’s, his work lives on and is impacting a new generation. The epitaph on the Tolkien’s tombstone is quite interesting. On their tombstone it reads his wife’s name first: “Edith Mary Tolkien.” Underneath her name it says, “Luthien”. Under his name on their tombstone, it says: “Beren”.

The names Luthien and Beren are the names J.R.R. Tolkien gave to characters of his. Beren is a mortal man who was exiled from his kin. Luthien’s character is said to have had a Maia for her mother. A Maia was one who existed before creation and time itself (mockery of God, in attempting to be as a god). Luthien is also said to be half elf (evil) and half divine (good). This introduces the idea of the Yin and the Yang which is also evil (Taoism). Luthien is viewed as a god of sorts with healing powers and magical abilities. In this character’s life, she becomes mortal for Beren instead of remaining immortal (mockery of God). It is said after she died that she had an option to go to a place where the spirits of the dead Elves await re-embodiment (this teaches re-incarnation). In the end, she chose for her and Beren to be re-incarnated as mortals.

The bottom line is this: We must be careful what we allow ourselves to watch and/or partake in. Fiction or not, the inspiration for a story line had to come from somewhere. Is the author’s imagination dark? Does the plot include evil characters? Are there “red flags” that go up when you view certain scenes? This is a very deceptive age we live in. There is a narrow road that we must walk if we wish to be children of God. Scripture says that there will only be a few which are willing to walk the narrow road that leads to life… are you one of the few?

Video Clip:

On a side note, one final thing I noticed was a scene in one of Tolkien’s movies where a character is smoking pipe weed; as he puffs, the smoke spells out “666” which is the number for the anti-Christ.

25 responses to “The Hobbit – Exposed”

Good post, revealingtruthtoday. These works are full of evil. And both Lewis and Tolkein were members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. So many people immerse themselves in a fake and very demonically inspired universe (complete with its own made-up language)…they need to truthfully ask themselves, can they quote as many Scriptures as they can passages from Tolkein? Can they better tell us the genealogies of the Antediluvians or the Patriarchs of the Bible, or the imaginary bloodlines/relationships between the Orcs and the Dwarves and the whomevers? Can they tell me what lessons they learned from the Kings of Judah and Israel, or the idiocy of Sauron and whoever else. I don’t even want to know their names. PEOPLE, WAKE UP, THIS WORLD IS GETTING MORE AND MORE EVIL BY THE MINUTE, AND ALL OF YOU DEFENDING THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND ALL THAT GARBAGE?? WE NEED TO FOCUS ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, ON HIDING HIS WORD IN OUR HEARTS, AND ON PURSUING A LIFE OF HOLINESS AND THE HOLY GHOST OVERFLOWING OUR EVERY THOUGHT AND ACTION, SO WE CAN TOUCH AND CHANGE THIS WORLD!! This world is being SWEPT AWAY in a tsunami of unrighteousness, the only way to transform anything is through a sold-out life to the LORD and the power of the Holy Ghost flowing through us. Please, everyone, stop defending Tolkein’s “Harry Potter” opuses. They are NOT good, and they are NOT worth reading. And whether you like to hear it or not, they are full of demonic drawing power that sucks you further into the occult. RUN AWAY and RUN TO THE LORD, unplug from the stupid world of “fantasy” and tap into the LORD!!!!! We are all called to change the world for HIM!!!

Yes, I agree that the cover illustration for LOTR could be taken that way. But this also proves that you don’t know the plot of LOTR. You could say that the All-Seeing Eye in the center, along with the triangular rings, represent Illuminati and Satan. However, did you not consider the fact that this ring is what is tempting Frodo, what he is trying to destroy? This clearly represents the fight against Satan, not trying to support him. As for The Hobbit, how do we not know that the sunset is – well, just that – a sunset? And if you’re going to criticize these stories just for having fantasy creatures, why don’t I see anyone calling out Shrek for being demonic? Is it because the lesson we learn from Shrek is a lot clearer for the audience to understand?

iv just done a little research into the john todd fellow and found a couple of interesting things written of him one by mark dice and another article from satanicpanic or sommething like that expose john todd to be a fraud who has led you to go down the path you have took in misinforming people about JRR Tolkien now this todd fellow can not be believed the bible says go by two witness at least never go off one and Jesus said you will know them by there fruit!., anyhow lets not condem now! this article is appreciated for it show how open healthy discusion brings clarity!.. God bless.

No offence but why don’t you also talk about Walt Disney and their subliminal messages including the word SEX, the horns and in some cases a penis in CHILDREN movies. I feel that there is something more sinister to Disney than meets The Eye. And for this I dislike watching the Disney films and don’t want anything to do with Disney.

I can’t believe I’m leaving a comment but all this misinformation irritates me. I’ll just try to talk about the most obvious ones: ‘The Black Speech’ is NOT one of the Elvish languages. Tolkien being a linguist, he invented a lot of languages. The Black Speech is made to be an evil language because it is spoken by ‘the servants of Sauron’.

Sauron is the big villain of the Lord of The Rings trilogy, the ones the heroes have to fight. Sauron is also a Maiar (an evil one, the other Maiars are good. The Maiars were sent by Eru Illuvatar (i.e God) to help people of Middle Earth fight evil (so you can see them as angels, this is why they are ‘immortal’ and use ‘magic’) but Sauron turned evil and became a disciple of Morgoth (also known as Melkor) who is the equivalent of Satan on Middle Earth. Morgoth is made to be a bad guy. All evil creatures are made from him, because Morgoth cannot create life, only transform what already exist into monsters. The only one who can create life is Eru Illuvatar (i.e God). You can see here the parallel with Morgoth = Satan, he transforms God’s creation to make them do evil.
Elves ARE children of God. Elves and Men are known as being both ‘children of Eru Illuvatar’. And the Men are his favorites. Elves are creature bound to the earth and cannot leave it even after they die, this is why they ‘reincarnate’.

Men are Eru’s favorite children, and he gave them the ‘gift of death’ (meaning they are not immortal like elves, so they will be driven to achieve more and go beyond what Eru has planned for them i.e : they have ‘free will’) and when they die they join him in ‘heaven’ with all the Ainurs. The Ainurs are the lesser gods that Eru created (if you must you can see Ainur as angels too).
As for Elves and their languages, the languages of the Elves are separated in two big languages ‘Quenya’ and ‘Sindarin’ one of them based on the Finnish language and the other on the Welsh language. So no the elves do not speak ‘evil language’ or would you say that Finns and Welsh people are all evil?

As for the eye on the cover, it is not supposed to represent God, it’s supposed to represent the Eye of Sauron (don’t tell me you never seen the big red eye from somewhere from the Lord of the Rings movies?) so if it looks evil to you, congrats it’s supposed to be! Sauron is clearly evil (because again he is the one that the heroes have to fight in the Lord of the Rings). He created The One Ring, which is also evil, and clearly showed as such in the stories.
As for the dwarves, yes they are not children of Eru Illuvatar. Aule created them (one of the Ainur, also called Valar, the Valar being the gods who loved Eru’s creation so much that they wanted to live in the world and protect Eru’s children). Aule is the god of craft, the earth and all manual labor. He was too impatient to teach his knowledge to Eru’s children and didn’t wait for them to wake up before he decided to create his own version of ‘children of the Earth’ so he created the dwarves. Eru wasn’t happy with Aule but told Aule to not destroy the dwarves, he told Aule to let them sleep until the Elves, his first children, would wake up. Eru wanted the elves to be the first to walk the earth.

Also, magic is not evil in itself on Middle Earth, both good and evil characters use it. But not many can use magic, and most of their magic is limited. The Maiar are the ones using it the most, but as said before, they are like angels. The Men themselves barely use any magic and most of them aren’t able to.

There are many evil creatures on Middle Earth, but as said above: presence of evil things in itself does not make the books evil, it’s how they are presented. Evil is clearly portrayed as evil (so something to be fought by the heroes). Trolls, goblins and orcs (also with giant spiders, dragons, balrogs and other creatures) are all evil and the ‘free people’ (meaning the races free from the evil of Morgoth: Hobbits, Elves, Men and Dwarves) fight them. Orcs are Elves who have been corrupted by Morgoth (or if you will good creatures who have been tempted by the devil) Orcs speek the Black Speech, not elves. Elves are the greatest and wisest, most beautiful and the purest of all the races of Middle Earth, but they are very sensible to the suffering of the world and can die of sorrow and grief. Hobbits are the most peaceful creatures you will ever meet, affable and of good nature, who never went to war and don’t meddle in the things of other races. They only care about food and having a comfortable home. That’s why they are called the ‘gentlefolk’. Dwarves are resistant to the black magic of Morgoth, few of them ever served him, but they can become enslaved by their own magic: their lust for gold. But dwarves can be decent folks too. Men are the ones who are the most sensible to both good and evil, because of their ‘free will’ given by Eru.

As for the Hobbit story. It is a story of how little folk can fight evil, and how good deeds can go a long way. How small people can make a different, and how bravery can be found. It is also the story of the evils of gold (the dwarves attracted the dragon to their kingdom by amassing too much gold) and also foretell the rise of Sauron again who will need to be fought, 60 years later, in Lord of the Rings. It is also the story of the redemption of a king, who started the journey with a noble goal, reclaimed his kingdom from the evil dragon, but then succumbed to the evil magic gold has on his people, to then in the end break the curse and fight evil and die nobly while doing so. This is a really great story, and it tells of many good things and how evil can be fought. Oh and also ‘fantasy’ does not come from ‘fantasize’. ‘fantasy’ is the genera who base their story on medieval myths and tales. So I encourage you to look at Tolkien’s work with a more open mind, more intellectual curiosity, and also to inform yourself before casting judgement. Many Christians sees good things in Tolkien’s work, and you can see parallel to good Christian values in it.

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Despite your explanation in the comments, I still see the darkness/evil in the entire plot. For many, if they knew/studied/loved the Bible as well as they knew this movie/book plot (as well as other movies/books) – we’d be a lot more advanced (spiritually) as a society. Should we not be more enraged at injustices upon Christianity rather than allowing a blog regarding “The Hobbit” to enrage us?

And, why parallel the Bible to this book? Why not just take the Bible as it is written… minus the elves, etc.? I mean, I get it… it’s just a fictional story; however, for me – it is a waste of time to spend endless hours reading such things (with questionable origins in evil mythology) when eternity is at hand. I’m all about hobbies, enjoyment, etc… but in balance. There comes a time when studying novels/movies, elf languages, fictional things, etc. becomes a very poor use of our time and unnecessary clutter in the brain. For me personally, I feel that time is short and we must focus on what really matters. Just some food for thought.

To the writer of the comment posted on FEBRUARY 26, 2015 AT 1:49 AM.
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I read through your comment. I hope you have the time to read this, but I think it would be interesting. I used to enjoy The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Star Wars. But, I noticed things about them that bothered me. (I don’t read or watch them anymore.)

I did a Google search and found a book by a Wiccan describing, in a matter-of-fact way, how a witch (or Wiccan) could summon various spirit creatures (called “elementals”), such as gnomes, dwarves, elves, and others. Listen to what Mr. Skye Alexander (a Wiccan) writes concerning gnomes and dwarves:

‘Gnomes, whose name means “earth dwellers,” dwell in the element of earth. …. At times, however, they can seem gruff… Sometimes called trolls or leprechauns, these elementals are practical, no-nonsense,… creatures. They … can be valuable aides when you’re doing prosperity spells. Other earth spirits include the dwarves of European faery tales [sic], the bergbui (Teutonic mountain giants), … If you wish to work with a gnome, go to a wooded area, call to it, and wait patiently until it reveals itself to you or you sense its presence.”’ [End quote]

Deuteronomy 18:10-11
“[10] There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, [11] Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.”
_______

Witchcraft is believed to be neutral by actual witches. They speak of “white magick” [sic] and the “dark arts” (or “black magick”). But, God makes no distinction between white and black “magick.” Both are witchcraft.

I do not intend to offend you because I can see where you’re coming from. I just hope this was informative. I encourage you to seek God about The Lord of the Rings and what He would like you to know about it. This is a good verse about talking with God.

Jeremiah 33:3
3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
As you depend on Him, God will lead you to understand what He would like you to see. Thank you for reading.

@Gavin… Nowhere in this blog did I condemn onlookers to Hell. I am merely warning others out of a heart of concern. I say this with a pure heart and not with judgmental undertones, but… Perhaps it would be helpful to do some soul-searching if that is the conviction of your heart. I don’t want to see any soul perish for lack of knowledge. God bless.

I fully agree with Hannah! All things, including the Holy Bible can be twisted in a person’s mind to spur on towards evil. A simple line from the Bible…”spare the rod and spoil the child” has been often used to cover the evils of child abuse. Certainly our loving Heavenly Father did not intend for us to beat our children, His children with a rod! The “rod” He speaks of is the rod of the Gospel. If the Gospel message is spared from the child, indeed the child is “spoiled”. Yet, how many miss this understanding and take this scripture to mean that you can only teach a child to be righteous by beating them? So, that little illustration shows that even the most righteous of books can be misconstrued by many. We certainly don’t want someone, as has happened in this blog, to warn others to stay away from this “evil” book (the Bible that teaches to beat children), because it is not evil, and that was not the intention of those words. The individual perceptions of the writings of any book can be misconstrued as evil – that does not make the book evil.

Wes Penre, quoted above, read J.R.R. Tolkien’s work and then dove into the dark side, while I read this book during a period when I was slightly off the path, recognized the parallels to the Gospel and started “cleaning up my act”, returned me to studying the Gospel with more intent. It all has to do with the spirit we are born with and the teachings we have accepted as truth that lends to our perspectives when we encounter anything in life – a book, a movie, a song, etc. Many do not really get taught along their path as youth and are left to flounder. These works of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis could, and often does, bring thoughts that can turn one to the truths of the Gospel.

I choose good! I don’t look for evil, but I am very aware of evil, recognize it and avoid allowing it into my life. I loved reading all of Tolkien’s work as well as C. S. Lewis’ works. I find these fantasy stories that show good vs. evil a great way to continue to remind myself of the effects of evil and the wonderful results of good. For instance, the insinuation that an elf = evil blows my mind. When I read of the elves (and saw them depicted in the movies) in Tolkien’s works, I thought of delicate, elegant, loving, industrious people with special powers, not evil characters. We each have special powers given us from our Heavenly Father. I equated it to that. I guess my mind chooses the higher road.

I not only loved the books (first read by me in 1969) and the movies that depicted the stories and characters as I imagined when I read the stories, I shared these with my children. My children see the same parallels as do I – good vs. evil with the battle for good being the victor. Perhaps if you do have a nature towards goodness and righteousness, reading these great books by Tolkien and C. S. Lewis by you would have you change your perception, your point of view on others reading these great writings.

In my understand of truth and error, this blog was not a “revealing of truth today”, but a clear misunderstanding with tightly closed mind. I see these two writers as inspired to write these great stories that can, and often does, point people towards the stories in the Holy Bible that are not fiction, but fact.

All of this being said, I fully understand that we each have our perceptions, but we need to spend more time pointing to the Gospel Truths and less time trying to point out what is evil and what is not. If a person is pointed to the truth of the Gospel message, that person, once accepting those truths and following its teachings, can then draw upon the Holy Spirit to discern truth from error.

@Marilyn, thanks for taking the time to read my blog and comment. No, I am not offended by your comment – so no worries there. But, I do wish to address a few things. First off, it was Tolkien (not me) that said the elves were evil. In his direct quote shown on my blog, he said the elves/dwarfs in his writings were “not children of God.” Secondly, we are all born with a sinful nature and ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. None of us are born with a nature toward good nor are we inherently good – the only good that can be found is us is through Christ alone. Many people are not raised with good spiritual understanding and have a great tendency to be influenced by the “dark side” of things. Everyone does not have the gift of discernment – that is why I gravitate toward pointing out things which might impact a person negatively. Ephesians 5:11 says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” That is what I am trying to do with my blogs.

I think that when Marilyn was speaking about our “nature towards goodness and righteousness” her meaning didn’t really come through in the word choice. Her last paragraph seemed to put it much more clearly to me:

“All of this being said, I fully understand that we each have our perceptions, but we need to spend more time pointing to the Gospel Truths and less time trying to point out what is evil and what is not. If a person is pointed to the truth of the Gospel message, that person, once accepting those truths and following its teachings, can then draw upon the Holy Spirit to discern truth from error.”

We are not inherently good, and the only good that is found in us is in Christ alone. But Christ, though the Spirit, does allow us to discern truth from error and to see and embrace the “light” side as opposed to the dark one. I think that your comments about discernment essentially come back to the question of your audience in writing this post. Is it Christians? Or is it people that don’t know Christ yet? Because if it’s Christians, though it may be prudent to warn of temptation, denying the parallels to the gospel and labeling these books as entirely evil is incorrect and unhelpful – see Marilyn’s example of the aid they were to her in her walk with God. But if it is people who don’t know the gospel yet, revealing dark symbolism in the Hobbit isn’t likely to help them on their walk. Pointing out the gospel parallels in these works of fiction that they love, and then showing them the even greater story of good versus evil that’s actually true, the amazing gospel that has been revealed to us, will be much more powerful.

You seem to operate under the assumption that if fiction has dark images or any representation of evil in it than it is an ungodly story and evil in and of itself. But Jesus frequently told parables (another form of fiction) in order to express spiritual truths to his listeners, and to us. An example is in John 10, where Jesus uses the idea of being the “good shepherd” to his sheep, Christians. He uses the imagery of thieves and robbers to represent false teachers in verse 8, and the image of a wolf to represent evil, trouble and judgement in verses 1-13. Jesus used these dark/sinful figures to represent a greater spiritual reality – that there are people and forces in this world that are seeking to separate us from him, but that he will hold on to us because he is the good shepherd. The story ends with good’s triumph over evil and Jesus’ ability to hold on to us regardless of what comes our way.

For Jesus’ audience at the time and for us this story is a wonderful way to illustrate the truths of the world we live in and of God and Jesus’ nature. I don’t know a huge amount about Tolkien but I am convinced that although Lewis’ story of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” doesn’t match the gospel to every single little detail, it is a very helpful and powerful thing that Lewis introduces the concepts of salvation and the mercy/justice of the creator to people who may not otherwise come to know those ideas at all!

So just because a story has elements of darkness in it doesn’t make it a dark story. I think we need the elements of darkness there to show how wonderful and amazing and brilliant it is that our God has banished darkness forever in Christ.

@Hannah,
Thank you for your comment and bringing out some very valid points. You are right that Jesus told parables to convey truth – but where Jesus’ stories and Tolkien’s stories differ is that Jesus inspired people to do good by telling parables. It is well-noted that Tolkien’s stories have inspired people to want to look deeper into magic, sorcery, and the dark side (which is not a good end result). Granted, in order to have a plot, there must be some opposition – I agree; however, the end result will speak volumes. Have Tolkien’s stories been harmless entertainment? Perhaps for some, but there are many others who will accept even greater atrocities after letting a little “innocent” sorcery or an “innocent” story line in their minds. Then, they will proceed to watch movies such as Harry Potter, LOTR, Twilight, etc., until they gravitate more toward the hard core horror movies. That is my primary concern – just as the Bible says in Galatians 5:9, it only takes a little leaven to infiltrate the whole lump of dough. Likewise, it only takes a little acceptance of movies/books with sorcery, wizardry, etc. to lead one on a gradual path to destruction.

Thank you for being so quick to get back to me. I agree with this reply, that no doubt Tolkien’s (and perhaps Lewis’) stories have inspired some people to move in to darker things. But I think we need to recognise that they also inspire many other people to be more courageous, persistent in clinging on to goodness, more open to the idea that there is actually such a thing as good and evil (which a lot of people today don’t believe!) etc. I agree that it can be unhelpful for some people to be overexposed to this genre of fiction because of the temptations that lie behind it for them, but I can’t help feeling that really, almost every element of our world that we come across is likely to produce the same two responses in people: either coming closer to God and understanding his character better, or being drawn further away from God and into temptation and sin. Obviously there are some things that only draw people away, not closer. But I don’t think fantasy is one of those things.

Though I agree that we need to be careful with this genre for the temptations it offers some, I don’t feel as though that message came through clearly in the original post. It showed clearly the dangers involved with the fantasy genre but I think to label the whole genre as wrong when it can be just as helpful to some as it is unhelpful to others oversimplifies the issue.

Yea…. Did you know that Tolkien was very good friends with C. S. Lewis? Yes, the Christian author of the Narnua Chronicles and The Screw Tape letters? He Read The Lord of the Rings. He convinced Tolkien to continue with the story. So… What’s your point?

Yes, I knew that and wrote about their friendship in the blog. The point of this blog is to explain to others that there are also some very dark things in their writings that we need to be aware of, lest we become deceived and allow for greater evils to infiltrate our minds and spirits.